“Oh, no,” Cass moaned, rising to her feet. She pressed one hand to her mouth as she gripped the seahorse’s head for balance.
An eerie moment of silence swallowed the first burst of commotion. Then a jumble of voices on both radios broke through. A plume of smoke rose from the direction of the livestock barns. The warning blip of an emergency vehicle siren sliced through the mayhem. He caught the words “Cattle Barn” loud and clear.
Jake glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
But Cass turned back to the bench where she’d left her own radio. He and Max hopped off the ride and ran halfway across the concourse when he caught sight of an ambulance parked on the hill outside Cattle Barn 4.
He broke into a jog, Max loping along easily at his side. When they rounded the open doors at the back of the ambulance, Jake spotted Sergeant Winter seated on the metal deck, a blood-soaked wad of cloth in his hand. An EMS tech was working on closing a wound on his cheek with a butterfly bandage.
“How are your guys?”
“They’re fine. We were heading back in when it blew. I didn’t hit the dirt fast enough. Caught a big splinter,” Winter reported.
Jake turned to look at the gaping hole where the massive cow had stood a short time before. A bevy of first responders tended to the blast site while what appeared to be the entire fair security team did their best to move some freaked-out cattle from the other end of the building.
Cass’s voice came across the channel she and her team kept open, and he stepped away from the commotion to better hear her. But she wasn’t speaking to him. Instead, she was barking orders to her own team.
“Bud, get me a phone I can use and the name and number for whoever is in charge at the Air Force Base. We need to get some records pulled.”
Jake allowed himself a grim smile. Cassidy Walker was done being a pawn in whatever game this joker thought they were playing. It was game on.
Chapter Seven
Cassidy watched Jake Donovan walk away from her. Again.
The gnawing ache caused by his sudden absence in her life had abated over the years, yet seeing him again made it clear it had never gone away entirely. But she couldn’t let herself go there again. Not when there was so much at stake. Maybe not ever.
They were still kids when their lives veered off in different directions. Jake had been determined to attend the university in Fayetteville once they graduated and was excited to live the full college experience. But her family struggled to send her as far as Little Rock. While he was going to football games and meeting people from all over, she was working at a sandwich shop every hour she wasn’t in class. After a few months, the distance between campuses and the differences in their lifestyles proved to be too much.
When Jake had told her he thought they should call things off, she’d slumped into a mild depression. Her mother was the one who’d talked her back to the land of the living. She’d made Cassidy promise to visit the campus health center and speak to one of the counselors. The counselor had, in turn, encouraged her to find her own purpose in life.
But the breakup left her reeling emotionally and struggling to focus in school.
She’d begun speaking to a young woman in her English Literature section who was a member of the ROTC. For the first time, Cass had considered doing something other than the expected four years of college.
She’d stayed in school but switched her major from Business Management to Criminal Justice. Then she’d joined an officer training program.
Until today, Cassidy always considered her service the best decision she’d ever made.
Now someone was making her question her choices.
She’d spoken to Bud and put a plan in motion, but now she had to make sure everyone was on the same page. Cassidy flagged down the fire trainee who’d been checking on her periodically. “Hey,” she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth to make her voice carry. “Hey, T.B.?”
The guy looked up and she beckoned him to her. “Ma’am?”
Clinging to one of the poles at the edge of the platform, she spoke in short, clear sentences, pausing each time the ride circled around to the back of the midway.
“Would you ask Colonel Aronson to come see me? Tell him it’s important. I have information that might pertain to our bomber.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The firefighter gave a short sharp nod and turned away.
Cassidy watched as her messenger trotted up the hill toward the arena.
She was going to have to ask for help. Not something at the top of her skill set. But if she could get what she wanted from the base, she would have a boatload of information to sift through. Even if they could get a laptop or tablet to her, Cassidy didn’t think she could focus on a screen for more than a few seconds without getting sick. And if she was going to make any sense of the data, she needed someone who could seek out patterns.
Feeling slightly dejected, she made her way over to the bench and sat heavily. The bulk of the pack forced her to bounce off the back of the seat. “Stupid backpack. Stupid Cassidy.”
But even as she chastised herself she knew she didn’t mean it.
